Vigilance Day

I have three questions, maybe four.

Whenever there was a holiday in the Frank Chavoor family one thing was certain. We'd spend the day at the beach? Never. We'd picnic at Griffith Park? A few times. Church picnic? On Memorial Day. But the one constant was that Dad, around 10 in the morning after he shaved and doused himself liberally with Old Spice, would go to the bookcase and pull out the appropriate encyclopedia and begin reading aloud about the holiday we were celebrating.

He'd stand in the middle of the den holding up the text like it was the Good Book and he was commencing to preach the word. He'd read the introductory paragraph and then stop and shout, "Come listen to this! Learn about the holiday you're celebrating!" And Mom would sent me from my bowl of Sugar Pops into the den where I would sit on the couch and be Dad's one boy audience.He'd read the entire article, read each word and paragraph as if each part of it were of equal importance and any part not properly read or not read at all would mean that I would have no chance of truly understanding and appreciating the given holiday. Sometimes he would read a phrase twice, adding my name at the end of the phrase in hopes of acquiring some buy-in. I suppose that's how I started bringing one page articles to class just before holidays for my classes over the years. Just last week I brought them an article about Labor Day, and I had them write a response in their journals.

One day they'll make 911 a holiday, I suppose. Labor Day being so close will be problematic but they'll do something to fix that, maybe like move Labor Day to the end of the month. Then there's the problem of what to call it. It could be called Freedom Day or Firefighters' Day or Vigilance Day. I don't suppose you could call it Freedom Day; 3,000 people dying is not readily associated with freedom. And the firefighters were surely heroic but naming the day after them may not encompass the broad sweep of what marked our collective souls that day. That leaves us with Vigilance Day which may not fly because it suggests that we may not have been as vigilant as we should have been and the point of the holiday would be to pledge to be more vigilant in the future which wouldn't be untrue. It was one of the biggest meltdowns of both preparedness and response in our history.

But we don't want to be painfully truthful about it; we want something about the day but vague enough to not think about it too deeply. Something solemn but not morbid and something with overarching patriotism to it. There will be flags, half mast, everywhere, and "Never Forget" signs in windows and on lawns.It won't be a picnic day. The day off will be on Monday, which means there will be Vigilance Day sermons on Sunday, just as there are Memorial Day and Independence Day sermons. Interestingly enough, not every American holiday merits a sermon on the day before. You won't hear for instance, a President's Day or Labor Day or King Day sermon, at least not in the churches I have attended in my life.But it will be a day to pray and reflect. What though-- after the memorial is built where the twin towers once stood-- will be prayed for and what will be reflected upon? The TV news will start at the memorial and the camera will show us people who gathered there to put flowers and light candles and hold signs and there will be 5 second clips of speeches by survivors and friends or relatives of victims and the mayor of New York. Then some shots of people in church in ornate New York City churches. And there will be public service announcements with the American flag waving in slow motion superimposed over the 911 memorial while taps plays and James Earl Jones does the voice over, something simple, short and moving.

Will people go on weekend getaways on Vigilance Day? Will they attend patriotic gatherings and listen to impassioned speeches? Will it evolve into something else? Will it become a celebration of the overthrow and death of Saddam Hussein? Will people burn effigies of him like they burn effigies of Guy Fawkes in England, even though Saddam is the wrong guy from the wrong country? Holidays have slowly departed from its original purpose. Mother's Day was originally meant to be a protest of Mothers against war. So Vigilance Day will morph into something other than what it should be; it's inevitable, I guess. The words "freedom," "courage," "sacrifice," "honor" and a host of others will tossed around like so many walnuts and raisins in a fancy salad.

We have not yet examined the hard questions, not collectively anyway, and anyone who does get dropped into the societal waste bin called "conspiracy nut." I don't consider myself a nut, not unless the word "music" is in front of that word, and even then it's not a word I'm entirely comfortable with. And I don't think there's a conspiracy behind every unanswered question but neither do I avoid pondering a question just because it might be one that might suggest a possible conspiracy. So here are my questions.

Why didn't NORAD scramble?

Do buildings really just completely collapse like that?

Why did the Bin Laden family members in the United States get a free pass, flown out of the country without even being interviewed on September 13?

And finally, President Bush. I'm not angry at him. I wonder about him though quite a lot. I think he was just a pawn, a rube. I think that he was the elitist that people thought they saw in his opponent for the office of president of the United States, although it sounds weird to think of him or anyone as both a rube and an elitist. Anyway, I didn't want to drag him into this because he might steal all the attention but my question is this:

How could he have ignored the briefings, Intel "chatter," reports, advisors on over 40 different occasions-- including several that were very specific-- about terrorist threats on our country?

Those are my four questions. And until they are answered or at least examined seriously, I don't see any point in getting sentimental or otherwise making 911 into some gaudy show or excuse for amping up God and patriotism which really aren't, shouldn't be, and can't be compatible in the first place.